After her past year of overwhelming success in track & field, Tatyana McFadden has become a well-known athlete both within the Paralympic family and beyond. McFadden was adopted from St. Petersburg, Russia, at age six by Deborah McFadden. Born with spina bifida that left her paralyzed below the waist, McFadden walked on her hands at her orphanage and did not use a wheelchair until after her adoption. Once in her new hometown of Clarksville, Md., McFadden played many sports in her youth, including wheelchair basketball, sled hockey, swimming, gymnastics and track & field. McFadden continued her athletic success at the University of Illinois, where she joined the Fighting Illini’s wheelchair basketball and wheelchair track teams.

McFadden competed in her first Paralympic Games in 2004, where she earned a silver and a bronze medal in track & field. She has competed in every summer Paralympic Games since then and is now a ten-time Paralympic medalist, including three gold. In July 2013, McFadden became the first woman to earn six titles at a single International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Championship. Additionally, she became the first athlete to win four major world marathons in a single year after taking victory in the women’s wheelchair division of the 2013 London, Boston, Chicago and New York City Marathons. McFadden’s sister Hannah also competed at the London 2012 Paralympic Games in the 100m, marking the first time siblings have competed together in a Paralympic Games.

With the encouragement of two-sport Paralympian Alana Nichols, McFadden was encouraged to try Nordic skiing for the first time last year. It didn’t take her long to pick up the sport, as she earned a national title at her first U.S. Adaptive Nordic Skiing National Championship in January 2013. She is currently a member of the 2013-14 U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing National Team, having already earned five top-10 finishes in the first three world cups of her Nordic career.